Why Some Cryptocurrencies Get Listed on Binance in Days, While Others Wait Months. How the Rules Will Change in 2025
Adding cryptocurrencies to Binance as the world's largest crypto exchange is an important stage in the development of any crypto project. Often, developers coordinate their entry into the exchange for months and spend millions of dollars on related expenses, but there are cases when a project gets into trading lists a few days after its creation.
In 2025, the process and results of listing on Binance and other major platforms drew criticism from experts, noting the price drop of crypto assets by tens of percent precisely after the start of trading on the exchanges. The problems in the process of adding new crypto assets were also noted by the heads of the exchanges themselves.
"We need to review the listing process on Coinbase, because now about 1 million tokens are created per week, and this number continues to grow. It is no longer possible to evaluate each individual token separately," wrote the head of the largest American crypto exchange Coinbase, Brian Armstrong.
Cryptocurrency listing is the process of adding a token or coin to a trading platform that allows cryptocurrency to be exchanged for fiat currencies or other assets. Accordingly, delisting is the process of ceasing trading of a selected cryptocurrency on a platform.
The distributed nature of the blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrency allows any platform to add tokens or coins to the list of tradable assets without the permission of regulators, the issuer, or other parties. Any exchange can list any cryptocurrency at its own discretion at any time.
Although Binance co-founder Yi Hee has slightly different views on the listing of new tokens on Binance. She noted that this is not only an analysis process, but also a strategy for attracting new users, as was the case with the “tapalok” tokens in Telegram. She also noted that a long review of projects can slow down their launch on the exchange.
And since there are no generally accepted market rules for listing, the process and conditions for adding a crypto asset to trading lists depend on a specific exchange. Using Binance as an example, you can see that the listing process has gone beyond the usual framework, and the platform offers four different options through which a crypto project can be listed on the exchange.
How to get on Binance
As of mid-May 2025, the Binance crypto exchange offers three different trading markets where crypto project assets can be presented. They include Binance Alpha, Binance Futures, and Binance Spot.
Binance Alpha — This market is designed to find promising early-stage crypto projects in the Web3 ecosystem with the potential to list their tokens on the main Binance exchange in the future.
Binance Futures — This is the largest cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform by trading volume. Projects can enter this market after successfully trading on Alpha, as well as directly if they meet all the requirements.
Binance Spot — This is the largest cryptocurrency spot platform by trading volume (around $23 billion in trading volume as of May 14 according to Coingecko, compared to its closest competitor, OKX, with around $5 billion) that allows users to directly buy, sell, and store crypto assets.
In late April, Binance announced some requirements for listing on the main spot market — the exchange only considers projects that have already traded on Alpha or Futures. With a small clarification that new tokens that have not previously been traded or issued on the open market at all can also enter the spot market.
These opportunities include mechanisms such as Launchpool, Megadrop, and airdrops for holders of BNB Chain (BNB), an affiliated crypto asset. These mechanisms are designed to bring new projects to the open market using Binance’s infrastructure.
Binance Launchpool allows users to earn new project tokens for free by locking BNB and other tokens, such as stablecoins, on the exchange or an affiliated Web3 wallet.
Binance Megadrop also encourages users to lock their BNB by participating in the company’s products or completing Web3 quests to earn bonus points, which will determine their proportional token rewards.
As part of the airdrop program for BNB holders, the exchange also distributes token rewards based on user BNB balances, rewarding holders with new project tokens that may be listed on Binance in the future. Another mechanism is the ability to get listed through voting - Vote to List. This feature assumes that from the beginning of March, users will be able to vote for projects that they want to see on the exchange. Projects with the most votes that have passed Binance's verification will be selected for listing.
Old approach
At the beginning of the year, Binance avoided the topic of rules and listing sequence, and even the approximate description that exists today was not published, except for local comments.
Test token soared to $500 million and got to Binance. What was it
A telling case that goes beyond Binance's April statements about the listing process is the addition of the TST token to the spot trading platform at the beginning, when about three days passed from the creation of the token to the start of trading. Now, given all the input, such tokens cannot get to the Binance spot market.
The change in publicity regarding the listing process occurred against the background of criticism from experts who noted a tendency for token prices to fall by up to 90% over several months after the start of trading on exchanges. Then the founder of the venture company Defiance Capital, Arthur Chong, pointed out that if major industry players do not take measures to improve the situation, most of the market will remain unsuitable for investment in the foreseeable future.
Adding cryptocurrencies to Binance as the world's largest crypto exchange is an important stage in the development of any crypto project. Often, developers coordinate their entry into the exchange for months and spend millions of dollars on related expenses, but there are cases when a project gets into trading lists a few days after its creation.
In 2025, the process and results of listing on Binance and other major platforms drew criticism from experts, noting the price drop of crypto assets by tens of percent precisely after the start of trading on the exchanges. The problems in the process of adding new crypto assets were also noted by the heads of the exchanges themselves.
"We need to review the listing process on Coinbase, because now about 1 million tokens are created per week, and this number continues to grow. It is no longer possible to evaluate each individual token separately," wrote the head of the largest American crypto exchange Coinbase, Brian Armstrong.
Cryptocurrency listing is the process of adding a token or coin to a trading platform that allows cryptocurrency to be exchanged for fiat currencies or other assets. Accordingly, delisting is the process of ceasing trading of a selected cryptocurrency on a platform.
The distributed nature of the blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrency allows any platform to add tokens or coins to the list of tradable assets without the permission of regulators, the issuer, or other parties. Any exchange can list any cryptocurrency at its own discretion at any time.
Although Binance co-founder Yi Hee has slightly different views on the listing of new tokens on Binance. She noted that this is not only an analysis process, but also a strategy for attracting new users, as was the case with the “tapalok” tokens in Telegram. She also noted that a long review of projects can slow down their launch on the exchange.
And since there are no generally accepted market rules for listing, the process and conditions for adding a crypto asset to trading lists depend on a specific exchange. Using Binance as an example, you can see that the listing process has gone beyond the usual framework, and the platform offers four different options through which a crypto project can be listed on the exchange.
How to get on Binance
As of mid-May 2025, the Binance crypto exchange offers three different trading markets where crypto project assets can be presented. They include Binance Alpha, Binance Futures, and Binance Spot.
Binance Alpha — This market is designed to find promising early-stage crypto projects in the Web3 ecosystem with the potential to list their tokens on the main Binance exchange in the future.
Binance Futures — This is the largest cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform by trading volume. Projects can enter this market after successfully trading on Alpha, as well as directly if they meet all the requirements.
Binance Spot — This is the largest cryptocurrency spot platform by trading volume (around $23 billion in trading volume as of May 14 according to Coingecko, compared to its closest competitor, OKX, with around $5 billion) that allows users to directly buy, sell, and store crypto assets.
In late April, Binance announced some requirements for listing on the main spot market — the exchange only considers projects that have already traded on Alpha or Futures. With a small clarification that new tokens that have not previously been traded or issued on the open market at all can also enter the spot market.
These opportunities include mechanisms such as Launchpool, Megadrop, and airdrops for holders of BNB Chain (BNB), an affiliated crypto asset. These mechanisms are designed to bring new projects to the open market using Binance’s infrastructure.
Binance Launchpool allows users to earn new project tokens for free by locking BNB and other tokens, such as stablecoins, on the exchange or an affiliated Web3 wallet.
Binance Megadrop also encourages users to lock their BNB by participating in the company’s products or completing Web3 quests to earn bonus points, which will determine their proportional token rewards.
As part of the airdrop program for BNB holders, the exchange also distributes token rewards based on user BNB balances, rewarding holders with new project tokens that may be listed on Binance in the future. Another mechanism is the ability to get listed through voting - Vote to List. This feature assumes that from the beginning of March, users will be able to vote for projects that they want to see on the exchange. Projects with the most votes that have passed Binance's verification will be selected for listing.
Old approach
At the beginning of the year, Binance avoided the topic of rules and listing sequence, and even the approximate description that exists today was not published, except for local comments.
Test token soared to $500 million and got to Binance. What was it
A telling case that goes beyond Binance's April statements about the listing process is the addition of the TST token to the spot trading platform at the beginning, when about three days passed from the creation of the token to the start of trading. Now, given all the input, such tokens cannot get to the Binance spot market.
The change in publicity regarding the listing process occurred against the background of criticism from experts who noted a tendency for token prices to fall by up to 90% over several months after the start of trading on exchanges. Then the founder of the venture company Defiance Capital, Arthur Chong, pointed out that if major industry players do not take measures to improve the situation, most of the market will remain unsuitable for investment in the foreseeable future.
